5 of the Best and Worst Types of Employees; Which Are You?

We spend a great deal of time at work. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ time use surveys, we spend an average of 7.6 hours working each and every work day. After a short period of time, we find out if the job we have is an activity we enjoy or something we dislike. And because our coworkers, colleagues, and superiors spend so much time working with us, they can quickly find out whether we are star performers or if we are one of those employees who barely gets by.

We frequently hear data, facts, and stats about employee engagement. The results of a Gallup poll published late last year found that 63 percent of employees worldwide were not engaged at work, and another 24 percent were actively disengaged. This left only 13 percent who said they were, in fact, engaged in their workplace.

Sure, engagement plays a role in how workers perform day to day. If an employee enjoys what she is doing, she is likely going to try harder and perform to the best of her ability. On the other hand, with all of the data on engagement, poor leadership, and problems within business cultures, sometimes we forget the undeniable truth — that not all employees are created equal.

There are good employees and bad employees in every workplace. Sometimes, when an bad employee is simply just that — a bad employee — we try to find a reason behind it. Maybe he’s disengaged, maybe it’s his boss, or maybe he’s having trouble managing the work-life balance. The truth of the matter is that maybe that employee is simply not a good fit for the position; you can’t fit large circle into a small square.

Using reports fromSalary.com, Forbes, and Entrepreneur, we identified some of the best and worst types of employees. Of course, no one fits perfectly into any one of these categories, but which one sounds the most like you?